Pruitt learning to be a head coach

I’m reminded of Lou Holtz first year at South Carolina. Went 0-11, everyone laughed. Then he promptly went 8-4 and 9-3 in the next 2 seasons. And they visibly went from sawft to bruising in no time.

 

Timeline is more compressed. It's not really fair, but that's the way it is.

Guys like Franklin throw the curve for the entire course. Getting to 11 wins and Top 10 finishes by year 3 given where Penn State was when he took over effectively set the bar.

A good staff will have this team at 10 wins (counting bowl) by Year 3... especially if we land 2 Top 10 OTs in this class.

 

Maybe I'm the only me that sees the resemblance.

 

That was actually one of the best coaching jobs in the history of the game.

Holtz went away from what he had done for his whole career and went to a quick passing offense to make up for his weaknesses.

 

We can only hope..

 

Thought Coach Cut dI'd that too, quick passing attack.

 

He did but that was already a big part of his offense. Holtz was a huge Veer guy that was all about the run game, but knew he didn't have the horses at SC to pull it off.

 

Yeah, but especially when he had to mask a weak offensive line.

 

Pruitt will be a successful head coach somewhere, but I just don't know if it will be at Tennessee. Starting to get the feeling it'll be a bit like Muschamp at Florida, where we'll never have the OL or QB to really compete but the defenses will eventually keep us in a lot of games.

 

I think he'll have the OL. It's obvious he's made it a priority. QB? Dunno.

 

The oline class he has right now is a hell of a foundation to start building. If Wright comes too, Tennessee may have the best oline class in the country.

We'll see at qb. Shrout and Maurer have the physical talent, but they're very raw.

 

This is apparently a physical law.

 

I liken Shrout to Bray. With good coaching, he can be phenomenal. Bray, however, was dumb as a box of rocks and his real-life and on-field decision making are best represented by that horrible tattoo.

 

Maurer will be better than all of the above imo and can run a little.

 

Muschamp got in his own way at Florida in a way that hasn't happened at SCAR. He switched offensive schemes every year he was there.

He tried to square-peg/round-hole that roster into being a pro-style power-run team with Weis in Year 1. Weis left for Kansas in what many see as a mutual parting of ways.

Muschamp then brought in Brent Pease in Year 2 with his weird spread power-run but not between-the-tackles power-run philosophy. This... didn't work and Florida ended 2012 #93 in total offense.

So in 2013, Pease then switched to a prototypical between-the-tackles pro style scheme. The results were laughable.

IIRC this entailed, in 3 years, switching the OL from man to ZBS then back to man blocking schemes.

Also, lets look at the class that Muschamp inherited in 2010 and then the recruiting philosophy while Muschamp was in the core years (2011-2012):

2010 ended with 1 QB (3*), 2 RBs (4*/3*) and 2 OL (2 4*) and 7 WRs (5 4*/2 3*). This was the #1 class in the country that saw 16 players recruited to the defense, including 5 5* players.

2011 ended with 2 QBs (5*/4*), 2 RBs (4*/3*), 2 OL (2 3*) and 3 WRs (3 4*). 9 out of 19 enrollees were offense.

2012 ended with 1 QB (3*), 1 RB (4*), 2 OL (5*/3*) and 1 WR (3*). This was the #3 class in the country and it was almost entirely defensive players.



So in 3 years, Muschamp either inherited or recruited 5 total OL. Pruitt, in his first single class, is looking at recruiting 5 OL with more talent overall than Florida got over 3 years. I wouldn't agree with the comparison.

 

Don't like the idea of another guy learning on the job. But the main distinction between CP and the last two clowns is that I believe CP win able to win once he gets his players in place and a few coach tweaks here and there.

 

Butch Jones didn't have the first clue what he was getting into from the SEC to the expectations. Dooley was familiar, just too lazy to do it.

Pruitt doesn't seem to have either issue.

 

I would think being the DC at Bama (and I would say the only tougher job in college athletics would be the HC gig..... at Bama) would prepare you to handle pressure about fan expectations from ANY organization not named New York Yankees... if you can keep the fanbase in Tuscaloosa content you can do it anywhere.

 

You think DC at Bama is the second toughest job in all of college athletics? Going to have to disagree on that one.

 

Yes, obviously calling Nick Saban's defense is a harder job than being HC at Texas, Ohio St, Michigan.